Your View: Students will continue to suffer under debt

The headline on July 19 read: "Liberals swoon for Warren, point to Clinton in '16."

John Pires

The headline on July 19 read: "Liberals swoon for Warren, point to Clinton in '16."

Although at this time Hillary Clinton appears to remain the Democrats' preferred option in 2016, I was pleased to see that the article reminded America of the value brought to Congress with Elizabeth Warren's election in 2012. She is a fighter. And she is a fighter for American families.

Not long ago, Sen. Warren introduced in the Senate a measure that would have allowed millions of young Americans to re-finance their student loans at today's lower rates, resulting in virtually unanimous Republican opposition to helping American families cope with the ever-increasing burgeoning student debt. All but three of the entire Republican Senate — Susan Collins (Maine), Bob Corker (Tennessee) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — voted against her measure. Only those three Republicans joined all Democratic senators in this valiant effort.

This legislation would have provided America's students and parents at least some relief from this unprecedented $1 trillion+ in student debt. Why didn't all remaining Republican senators, supposed representatives of the American people sent to Washington, join overwhelmingly with all Democrats in this effort, to show their concern for one of the major problems we face in America today?

Connect the dots. It's quite simple. All too many Republicans in Congress — both the House and the Senate — do not work to represent the people. Clearly, they continually work in the interests of big business — in this case, the banks and other lending institutions — while we continue to suffer the fallout from those efforts. Let us ask Republicans why they didn't enthusiastically get behind this measure, as all Democrats did. Whatever answer they give, don't fail to ask them what it is Republicans themselves are doing about alleviating this debt crisis on behalf of a great many American families.

They will have no grab bag to reach for.

Remember Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican Vice Presidential candidate from Wisconsin, who clearly let us know that he intended to discontinue funding for Pell Grants? Yes, he's the one Republicans chose as their vice presidential candidate to "save America from the Democrats." I guess ending funding for Pell Grants was their answer to helping the multitude of American families deal with the student debt problem — the growing student debt problem.

If that isn't discouraging enough, take a look at the House Republican budget plan put together by Ryan, which includes severe slashing of domestic spending on social programs. And the beat goes on.

This debt burden, and so many other problems facing America's families today, will continue unabated. Unless, of course, we ensure that those same people do not return to Congress and new ones like them are not sent to Congress. In other words, be an informed voter and use your vote wisely. The next elections are less than four months away. How much longer are we going to tolerate the abuse of elected officials at such great expense to American families?